The woman who coughed OUT her own lung: 40-year-old's violent hacking caused hernia to burst through her rib cage

A woman who went to hospital complaining of chest pain was told she had 'coughed out' her lung through her rib cage.

The 40-year-old had been hacking so hard for two weeks she ruptured her lung tissue and forced it between two of her ribs.

Her case is so rare it has been analysed in a new case report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Bizarre case: This image shows the woman's lung protruding through her ribs (circled) after it ruptured due to her violent coughing

After two days of pain, the woman drove herself to Good Hope Hospital in Birmingham, where doctors noticed cracking sounds coming from the right side of her torso, it was reported on The Body Odd on msnbc.com.

X-rays revealed she had herniated her right lung, part of which slipped into her pleural cavity, the space between her lungs.

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Dr Rachel Vreeman, the author of Don't Cross Your Eyes... They'll Get Stuck That Way, a myth-busting collection of quirky facts about the human body, told msnbc.com: 'While she didn't technically cough UP her lung, she coughed OUT her lung, through her ribs.

'It's so unusual to have this happen that it would merit this case report - unusual, but possible, apparently.'

According to the case study, the woman was suffering from asthma and emphysema - a condition that weakens lung tissue - which would have left her much more vulnerable.

Painful: The hernia meant the lung tissue was forced into a body cavity

It has been known for whooping cough patients to hack so forcefully their lung collapses, but rupturing one is far rarer.

Even more disturbingly, Dr Vreeman says, there are reports of people who have ripped their spleens and even ones of patients popping their eyeballs out of their sockets while coughing.

The New England Journal of Medicine also covered the recent case of a 59-year-old woman in Baltimore, U.S, who 'swallowed' one of her breast implants while doing Yoga.

She had been performing a forceful breathing exercise when a build-up of pressure her right implant through the thin tissue between her ribs and into the space in between the lungs.

To end on a positive, however, the woman in this latest case had surgery to repair her hernia and there were no reports of further problems at her three-month follow-up visit.

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The woman who coughed out her lung: 40-year-old's violent hacking caused hernia to burst through her rib cage